Baby Gym

I made this for my baby yesterday. I've been wanting to make it for a while so I'm really glad I finally did. I followed this tutorial making some slight changes in the pattern.I also topstitched down all the seams so when I wash it the batting doesn't get all messed up.

Awesome baby gym tutorial

If you have a baby you should really make this. It was easy and fun and my baby loves it! The canopy part I had left over from an old baby gym that had ripped. The colors and patterns matched my fabric for the gym so it cut some of the work out :)

I'm Baaaaack!

Time to get back to my dear more recently neglected blog. My baby is 10 weeks old and by now I have started to get back into Sewing etc. Ok so the update is.....

1. My basement sewing workshop is in shambles. We had another flood. By this time I'm really getting nervous that there may be all kinds of mold growing behind the walls so we cut out a section and confirm my suspicion. The drywall guys came is and ripped out the bottom 3 feet of the drywall and our handyman was able to see on the concrete blocks where all the water had been coming in from. It was all coming in where there is a drainpipe that comes down from the roof and goes underground near our foundation to drain into the drainage system which seems to have a major problem because it's not draining down the hill but into the house. He rerouted the drain to a new pipe down the hill and if we stay dry after a few hard rains he'll bury the pipe in the spring and we will put the walls back up in the basement. phew......so...... I had to bring a few things I was working on upstairs and took over my husband's study, and I mean took over. I hadn't meant to bring half my stuff up into there but it just happened. Oh well hopefully in a few months my sewing stuff will be back where it belongs, out of sight and reach until it's ready.

Lovely no?


2. I'll show you a couple of things Ive been up to. I made some more onsies...






I made a headscarf for myself. This was my first attempt and also the first time I really used my coverhem. I need to whip out a bunch more of these in fun fabrics.

Made these fun Chanukah dreidel iron-ons

I made an adorable velour outfit for my new niece. This was a burda pattern. I lengthened the top and switched the snap placket to the back (first time doing snap placket, what was I so afraid of?) The tulle just finished it off perfectly! This was my 1st time sewing pants,it seemed very confusing to me at first but came together great! I also left out the elastic in the waist. This velour is very stretchy so it fits perfectly without the elastic. By the way it looks stunnatious in person! The fuchsia color was very hard to photograph.


I will post again soon with some other things I'm working on. I found this skirt pattern that I thought would look smashing on me. I'm in middle of sewing out a test skirt in a cheap fabric. Can't wait to see how it comes out!

It's a Boy!

Just a quick update to my dear neglected blog.
Our beautiful new baby Shmuely was born September 13th. He was 8lb 1oz and 21" long.
I'll be back soon!!

TODAY...IS...A...SEWING...DAY!!!

Nuff said....Updates later.

Weekly Plan

I want to start blogging every Sunday with a sewing plan for the week. I think it will keep me focused and motivated to see a checklist getting done and with people watching I'm more likely to finish.

I will update this post as I get things done.

1. Sew sweater dress for Eta for school. (Involves tracing new pattern and sewing)

UPDATES - Monday - Traced all pattern pieces and cut out the fabric, including lining for the skirt. Spent way to long trying to figure out the serger setting I need to sew this material. I'm still not there or the dress would be sewn :(

Tuesday - Late last night I finally got my serger settings right for this fabric. I sewed the skirt and lining. Today I serged the bodice and sleeves together to find that either I cut the bodice too large or the skirt too small, luckily the skirt fits Eta just the way I want it to and the top fits Esther great to make it into a cardigan for her which is what she asked for. So now I need to cut and sew a smaller bodice for Eta and make the skirt for esther, Esther's while matching will be a separate skirt and cardigan.


2. Finish two skirts that I'm in middle of making for the girls (They are almost done but I haven't worked on them for over a month!)

Thursday - Looked at the skirts, decided they need to be hemmed shorter. That's something right ;)

3. This is ambitious but it would be great if I can get it done. Cut a pattern in the "curtain fabric" I bought at Home Depot (See last post) Dye it and sew it up. Maybe a dress for Eta for school?

Thursday - Cut out the pattern pieces for the Insa modified skirt. Maybe picked out the color I want to dye it... haven't gotten around to doing that yet.

That's all I'll semi-commit to this week, maybe I'll do more but this is more then enough to get started with. School is starting in a month and I'm due in 6 weeks so I kinda feel the fire under my bottom to get school stuff done. Next week (maybe) I'll do Esther's uniform skirts.

I also have the High Holidays coming up and the festival of Sukkos. The girls already have matching dresses (just need to attach the sashes) I blogged about all the way at the beginning that I've been saving and those two skirts I'm going to finish this week are also for the holidays, I'll just need to buy them a nice brown cardigan to match. I'll be wanting to make at least 1 or 2 more things for the holidays probably two dresses apiece.

Wish me luck!

Toilet paper and curtains.....

Ok not really...... but it looks like :)

On Friday I went into Home Depot to get some heavy metal washers to use as pattern weights. On my way out there was a big display box of "curtains in a box" on clearance for $5 each. I went to take a lookie as my kids rooms could use some curtains. They had these awful polyester polka dotted ones and then these 100% cotton white ones with either a black strip at the top or a purple one. I bought three sets and happily made my way out of the store very pleased with my purchases.


When I was putting them in my car I opened one up to see and feel the fabric because a funny idea was developing in my head. Each box had two curtains each 42"x84" long. Quick math showed me that each box would yield me nearly 5 yards of 100% cotton fabric most of which was white and most probably would dye really well. I went back for the rest of what they had..... This morning I separated the black and white fabric from one set and the white is in the washing machine right now. It feels like a really nice not too heavy bottomweight cotton.

I'm pretty sure it comes out the way I think and hope it will. I'll leave it white for now but when I have a project to make I'll first cut out the pattern pieces then dye them to whatever color I want and then sew it together. I probably should make a practice run, maybe this week? :)

If you are interested in dyeing or in some great white cotton for $1 a yard run to your home depot before they sell out! They are not getting them back in again and there's not much left. Oh you can buy them too if you just need some nice curtains LOL.

Also I trace all my patterns and have been using Kwik Sew/ Kwik Trace dotted pattern fabric. I love it. You can use it to drape, you can iron and wash it and it holds up so much better than pattern tissue paper. Well...... I'm almost out. I didn't really feel like spending 7.99 plus shipping on only 5 yards of it and besides I don't need the dots anyway so I started brainstorming for a cheaper option. The fabric is very much like light sew-in interfacing so I looked into buying some of that but it's pretty much the same price or more. Then I stumbled across this on eBay.

Two giant rolls of toilet paper!!!!....no just kidding ;)

Its sew in interfacing. I emailed the seller to ask her if she thinks this is stable enough to use as pattern fabric and she emailed me that she's used it for that as well as stabilizer for appliques and embroidery. The roll is 6.25"x125 yards. I bought both rolls she had and it worked out to an equivalent of 40 yards of the one I've been using. and the price including shipping was 20 and change making it about 50 cents a yard as opposed to almost 2 dollars a yard for the other stuff.!

This is especially perfect for making the kids patterns as they are not huge pieces to begin with. I can just cut a few pieces in the length I need and sew them one on top of each other to make a sheet the size I need. It will also cut out a lot of waste.

Happy sewing!

My second project from "Sewing clothes kids love"

I just finished the INSA skirt from "Sewing clothes kids love" The main fabric is a purple 21 wale corduroy. The ruffles are the same purple fabric that I used in the Imke tee.

I made a couple of changes to the pattern. First off I had to make a size 86/92 for the waist since my three year old has a small waist. Since I wanted it pretty long I extended the length. Then for the overskirt which usually has 4 pannels, I made one regular panel for the back and made a new pattern piece with a curve for the 2 side panels and left out the front. I sewed ruffles into the front panel of the underskirt. I finished the hems with the rolled hem setting on my serger. I wish these pictures came out better but it's late and there's no sunlight to be had. I'll put up outside pictures with E wearing it...maybe tomorrow...... :) This skirt matches the IMKE hooded tee I made for her last week. One school outfit down, how many more to go?

Pinning the ruffles

Finished the tee

Yay! Im so excited! I finished the Imke tee. I hemmed it with a rolled hem to get a lettuce edge. I think with more practice I'll figure out the settings better to have tighter stitches so none of the fabric will show through but for a 1st time I'm very satisfied.



Not only that but I am getting much more comfortable with my serger now. I was able to reinstall the stitch finger, rethread it and reset the tension and the stitch settings to regular serging without consulting the manual.

Anybody interested in seeing my fabric stash? If so I'll post pictures :)
I love my stash and it gets better and better. I just got a gorgeous order from fabric.com and I'm waiting on some stuff from fashionfabricsclub.com Is there such a thing as a fabric addict? I'm helpless lol....

500 unique hits, Hello.....anyone out there?

This morning I logged on to find my unique hit counter at 500. Now I know that I've personally come to my blog from 3 different computers, so technically that means there were 497 more computers or rather lovely readers like you who have visited my blog. But it's so quiet here. I'm not complaining but I don't have a single comment on any post and would love to know if anyone out there is actually reading and liking my blog. It would be really encouraging to hear from some of you :) Leave a comment to say hi!

1st project from "Sewing clothes kids love"

Thursday night I was itching to sew but didn't have the right pins for that dress I was planning on making. The pins were making holes and snagging the chiffon fabric :(

sooo... I decided to start on another little project that I've been so excited about. A couple of months ago I bought the book "sewing clothes kids love" and have been reading it and accumulating fabric in quite a scary way and it was about time to get down to actually cranking out some garments for my little girls. I decided I will not sew any more clothes for the summer as their drawers are full so I'm starting on a fall/winter wardrobe for them. It will be great to crank out some fall/winter as I am due September 20th and may not be up to sewing much then.

Just some background on why I'm so excited about this book. I used to sell Oilily clothes and fell in love with their designs. The mixing of fabrics that don't look like they would or should go together until they do is so much fun! It's a real exercise in creativity. I've been reading online for some time about the farbenmix style and was so excited when I saw this book.

Thursday night I started tracing and cutting the pattern and last night I worked for almost 3 hours finishing and then cutting fabric and serging it together. I started making mistakes and usually at that point I walk away for a bit but I was so determined to finish it last night so I just pressed through. Thankfully all of the mistakes were small and fixable but at 1am when the last thing I needed to do was hem it I did go to sleep. I'm planning on doing a lettuce edge hem on this and have never done one before. 1am was definitely not the time to start fiddling around with my serger, I knew it would probably end in disaster. I'm working on the settings now and sewing on scraps to try to get the right look. I don't have it yet but I'm almost there and I want it to be perfect because this top came out so stinking cute!

When it's done, hopefully today I will take pictures of E. wearing it. She was tickled pink when she tried it on this morning and just wanted to know when I was making the skirt to go with it.

Click on the pictures to see them bigger, it's worth it. Does anyone know how to make them bigger on the blog to begin with?

My dress form is pregnant!

So... I have a wedding to attend, like next week, well no.....a week from yesterday! Am I going to go out and buy a fancy maternity outfit when I'm 8 months pregnant that I may not wear again this pregnancy? NO! So I had an idea for a dress I wanted to make and that idea has now turned into a 2 piece design instead, top and skirt. Fabric is all washed and ready to go but I need my dress form since I'm working without a ready pattern and will need to do a lot of draping. This morning my dress form got a happy makeover and I think she looks so cute. Lets hope her back won't hurt as much as mine after standing all day with a big belly like that ;)

I'm a bit nervous because I don't have a clear idea yet of the finished project. But I think it will come out great. Whenever I embark on a creative project, be it photography, graphic design, painting etc my best work comes when I get my hands in the materials and start messing around working my brain like a blank canvas. Going into a project with a specific thing in mind might just stress me out. So I will take a deep breath and remember to stay flexible and let my creativity run wild. This is the first time I'm going to just totally wing it with sewing though. I'll keep you all posted on the progress.

Recycling Cashmere!

My husband loves cashmere sweaters. He brought some into the marriage and over the years I've bought more for him as gifts. Sadly a couple of the older ones have been tossed in the trash when they had a hole that could not be repaired discretely. This was way before sewing or crafting was even on my radar.

After this past winter I went through all his sweaters and put the ones that couldn't be worn anymore with my sewing stuff. Yesterday I carefully took them apart at the seams and look! I have a bunch a gorgeous soft cashmere. I'm going to use it to make a sweater for my 8 year old boy and maybe a 2 piece sweater outfit for my 1 year old for this winter. One of the sweaters also had this great zipper with a worn in leather zipper pull that will be great for the older boy's sweater. I'm a bit sad remembering a beautiful blue sweater that got tossed :(

One hour robe recycle.

I had this terry robe stuck in the back of my closet. I bought it last year when I was pregnant with ND and it was huge even then. Then I had the baby and the unworn robe went right to the back of my closet.

Yesterday while picking up my daughter at camp I noticed a lot of the girls were coming out of the pool in robes and that would be a lot easier than E. having to get all dried off and dressed after swimming since she was coming right home anyway. This morning I pulled it out in in one hour E. had a soft adorable little robe for herself.

I laid her nightgown over the robe and traced a bit outside it to make my cutting lines. I cut it out leaving in the collar and zipper in. Then cut new sleeves, sewed them in, hemmed it. Easy, fast and fun!

before
look how big it was :) (E. wasn't so happy when I took this pic)

Finished (now she's happy, I think she likes it!)

Hand Dying and Painting

Last week I took my first dip into hand dying fabrics with pretty neat results. After the onesies are dyed Im going to hand paint and applique them.

I wish I would have taken some pictures of the glorious mess you an make with fabric dyes. Its honestly so much fun and something I think I'll be doing a lot more of.

Next time I dye I'll remember to take pictures for you.

I think once I get this whole thing figured out it will come very much in handy. There are these farbenmix style outfits I want to make for my girls and how better to find a matching solid than to dye it yourself.